Sunday, May 22, 2016

May 22 – On this day in Montana history in 1914 The Red
Lodge Picket reported a tale that reminds us today of the ease of automobile
travel that for many years could not be taken for granted. Local attorney R. Wiggenhorn and Deputy Game
Warden George Mushbach decided to drive their families to Billings for an
outing. They fought the roads until five
miles from Billings when the added difficulty of a heavy rain storm left their
cars buried in “gumbo” along the road. The paper reported that the ears of the
children in the cars had to be covered when the two men vented their anger
“about the weather man, about the roads, about automobiles and about things in
general.” The families of the two men returned to Red Lodge on the train,
leaving the two men to dig out their cars.